National Finance Center outgrows plans to build on U of New Orleans campus

Officials at the University of New Orleans have switched gears on the pending National Finance Center expansion.

Initially, UNO wanted the agency to be a tenant for its Research and Technology Park. UNO Chancellor Gregory O'Brien said the university soon realized that the magnitude of

His suspicions were confirmed earlier this year when the U.S. Office of Personnel Management selected the NFC as one of four national centers to replace 22 current providers of payroll and related services for the federal government's 1.8 million employees. Over time, the initiative will result in thousands of technology jobs coming to New Orleans.

"(The NFC expansion) is going to be quite big. This is going to be bigger than can be built on a campus," O'Brien said. "We want to allow there to be a place where the NFC could really continue to grow."

Mayor Ray Nagin has the same idea. During his state of the city address last month, the mayor included among his goals "bringing various parties to the table" to build a 50- to 100-acre high-tech, campus-style complex for the NFC. The center is housed between four buildings -- two it leases from NASA in the Michoud Assembly Facility and two nearby in New Orleans Business and Industrial District that are privately owned. The center leases 350,000 square feet.

Aside from UNO, Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis and Rep. William Jefferson are among the parties working with the mayor, according to Nagin spokesman Chris Bonura.

UNO, which helped draft the NFC's successful proposal to the Office of Management and Budget, is developing a contract with the state Department of Economic Development on a technological plan to make the NFC a leader in providing, low-cost, high-quality payroll services to the federal government, O'Brien said.

The plan includes asking the Urban Land Institute to identify the best possible location and physical configuration for the center. O'Brien said the group envisions building a new park in New Orleans East to accommodate the NFC, as well as other technology and advanced manufacturing-related activities.

"(The new park) could really be, I believe, a significant boost in the economy in New Orleans East," he said.

Norma Grace, vice chancellor for properties and facilities development at UNO, said it is too soon to identify potential locations. However, O'Brien said NOBID is one of at least two interested parties.

NOBID President Eugene Green has said the industrial district is well positioned to accommodate the NFC, which has been located there for the past 30 years.

Acting NFC Director Jerry Lohfink warned earlier this year that any plans to secure the NFC would be hasty because the federal government has not allocated any funding for the expansion.

When the expansion takes place, O'Brien said there will also be a need for software development to execute the payroll services. He expects the need will spur companies in the technology park to work together to create the software. There might also be partnerships with national companies, he added.

Nagin traveled to Seattle last month for the Microsoft Government Leaders Summit, which included a reception with Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect. The mayor was updated on new technologies and reviewed customized software in development for New Orleans by Microsoft.

Asked if the mayor had discussed the NFC with Gates, Nagin spokesman Patrick Evans said he was not aware of such a conversation.

"We are willing to consider any relationship with any national company involved in software development that would benefit the citizens of New Orleans," Evans said.

While it had once been in the hunt to house the NFC, O'Brien said he does not anticipate the proposed park in New Orleans East hindering the search for tenants in his own technology park.

"I think this will be a very different kind of park. I think the park in the east is really going to be focused on operations and advanced manufacturing technology. The natural synergy of software developers -- there are about 70 companies in the park now -- will probably still want to be clustered near each other," he said.